Living in Chengdu, China

December 20, 2015

The Ghost

So I certainly don’t believe in ghosts, but I definitely saw a ghost while I was in China. My friends Brittany, Alia, Solstice, Mary Grace and I were hanging out in the hallway on the 11th floor when…actually, I think it’s best to tell you this first:

I’m sure it was just an electrical issue, but for days before this incident the elevator on the 11th floor would open and close two or three times, with no passengers, and then nothing at all. Mary Grace had given up the elevator for Lent, and had been using the stairs for about 2 weeks to get to our floor. That night, she told us that on her way up she had stopped on the the 7th floor to see a Tibetan monk caring around a bowl of just…fire. Like a flaming bowl. He looked at her and smiled, and then walked around the corner.

Then, Mary Grace met the rest of us in the hall and told us what she’d seen. We’re apparently all crazy because after hearing her account we decided to turn off all the lights in our hallway. We were talking about ghosts when is saw Brittany do a double take towards the staircase. I thought nothing of it. Moments later I happened to look over into the staircase and saw a figure; a tall, thin, human-looking figure standing sideways and facing the wall, hunched over with its head and arms hanging down. In an instant, I screamed (there were most likely some obscenities peppered in there, too), and fled. My screams made everyone else scatter to the closest open room. Everyone but Solstice saw the same exact thing.

Later, after we all came our senses, we were in Mary Grace’s room talking about ghosts. She then told us that her best friend (who was in our study abroad program) has a benevolent ghost that has followed her around for her entire life. Benevolent or not, I was not amused. I’d been hanging out with this girl for over a month, and now I’m being informed that she has ghosts following her?

Anyway, I still don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m pretty sure I saw one in China.